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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2012)
Opinion Every Republican in Congress Fails Blacks T he new NAACP Report Card for the first session of the 112th Congress is out and it shows that every graded Republican member of the House and Senate received an F on issues considered important to the nation’s oldest civil rights group. In the Senate, all 46 GOP sena- tors received Fs from NAACP. Of those, 34 voted against the NAACP’s position every time, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former presidential candidate John McCain. In the House, all 238 Republicans graded also received Fs. Although GOP House mem- bers have a reputation but being more conservative than their Sen- ate colleagues, only 10 House Republicans voted against the NAACP every time. In stark contrast to Republicans, 47 Democrats in the Senate earned As, three received Bs, one got a D and none received an F. The two independents in the Senate, Con- necticut’s Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry received a B and an A, respective- ly. In the House, all 238 Republi- cans graded earned an F. House Democrats voted like their coun- terparts in the Senate: 159 earned As, 22 got Bs, four earned Cs, one got a D and four received Fs. I have been studying NAACP legislative report cards for a cou- ple of decades and I can’t remember a time when Republi- cans in Congress have been this solidified in their hostility towards civil rights. About eight years ago, Republican Congresswoman Mary S. Leach of Iowa earned a C. More recently a couple of Repub- licans have earned Ds as the rest flunked. In the session of Congress that lasted from Jan. 5, 2011 to Dec. 23, 2011, only one Republican – Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) – voted with the NAACP 40 percent of the time. The GOP’s so-called moderate senators – Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine – supported the NAACP 33 percent of the time. The NAACP graded members of Congress on votes taken on such issues as repealing funding Democrats and Republicans. There is difference – a huge difference at that. Even the Black Republican alternatives are not viable alterna- tives. Congressman Tim Scott of South Carolina backed the NAACP only 5 percent of the time. The only other Black House Republican, Allen B. West, also earned an F, supporting the NAACP 25 percent of the time. It hasn’t always been this way. In fact, most Blacks voted Repub- Moderates have been replaced by rabid Tea Party activists for health care reform, judicial nominations, deep budget cuts, job creation and criminal justice reform. This NAACP Report Card should put to rest the lie that there’s no difference between lican until switching to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dwight D. Eisen- hower received 39 percent of the Black vote in 1956. In his close election with John F. Kennedy in 1960, Blacks gave Richard Nixon 32 percent of their vote. In the bygone years, the Repub- lican Party had such moderates as New York Gov. Nelson Rocke- feller, Mayor John Lindsey of New York City and Connecticut Sen. Lowell Weicker. It even had Black Republicans who fought for civil rights. But the GOP began the political equivalent of ethnic cleansing in 1964 with the nomi- nation of Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, who made an open appeal to segregationists. Goldwa- ter’s “Southern Strategy” went up with flames, with Blacks giving Lyndon Johnson 94 percent of their vote. Over the last half century, GOP moderates, such as former Secre- tary of State Colin Powell have either been pushed out of the party or marginalized. Moderates have been replaced by rabid Tea Party activists who have pushed an already conservative party to the extreme right. Read the rest online at www.theskanner.com Gil Noble and Mike Wallace – Legendary Journalists T wo giants of journalism died recently, days apart, leaving a deep void in the coverage of significant stories that speak to the history of a people and the corruption of the system. Gil Noble was the producer/host of the iconic, long-running, award-winning public affairs pro- gram “Like It Is,” which aired on the ABC affiliate, WABC-TV, in New York. The weekly program that was aired 33 years, covered people, places and events that affected the African American community, nationally and inter- nationally, and focused on stories often ignored by mainstream media outlets. Gil died on April 5 at the age of 80 from complica- T HE B LACK P RESS Linda Tarrant-Reid That same year, MLK and RFK were assassinated, LBJ had decid- ed not to seek reelection and Richard M. Nixon, who became known as “Tricky Dick,” would go on to capture the highest office in the land. Noble got his first media job at WLIB, a Black radio station in Harlem in the early 1960s. A tem- porary position that was only to last three months, Noble loved his new gig and vowed to learn everything he could in the short time allotted to him by Bill McCreary, the news director. After three months, Noble was retained and from his radio perch came into contact with the Who’s Who of African Ameri- can history and culture, including Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Dizzy Gillespie, Errol Garner and members of the Black Panther Party. One chance meeting resulted in an onscreen career. A White reporter at WABC-TV asked Noble if he would be interested in a job as a TV reporter. Gil answered in the affirmative, was interviewed and given a one week, on-air audition. His first assignment was covering the Newark riots right after the assas- sination of Dr. Martin Luther King. His work was so impressive that he was hired as a street reporter and would go on to become a weekend anchor and then the host of “Like It Is.” “Like It Is” grew out of the Kerner Commission’s Report, a scathing study that concluded that the news media’s lack of diversity directly contributed to its poor Noble and Wallace were on TV at the height of the Civil Rights Movement tions of a stroke; his appearances on “Like It Is” ended in 2011. The other journalist who passed away the same week was Mike Wallace, the “60 Minutes” fire- brand who made most of his subjects uncomfortable with his hard-charging, confrontational interviews. Wallace, 93, died after a long illness. Wallace, the king of ambush interviews, asked the questions others were afraid to bring up and in many cases, received answers that no one expected. Noble and Wallace became asso- ciated with TV programs that would define their careers and legacies in 1968, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. It was a period of student protests against the Vietnam War and political upheaval at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. coverage of urban the rebellions Gil Noble was a beneficiary of the White-owned media finally holding up a mirror to its face. He became the co-host of “Like It Is” with actor Robert Hooks in 1968 In an interview with Harold Hud- son Channer in 1998, Noble said “Like It Is” was the only ABC pro- gram produced and conceptualized by people of African descent. No one will replace Gil Noble as the journalist guide who brought our stories to a wider audience in a medium that was reluctant to give us a stage. His interviews with Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne, Nel- son Mandela, Aretha Franklin, and his documentary on Malcolm X have given us priceless, first-per- son historic nuggets that define each of us and our history. No one will replace Gil Noble as the journalist guide who brought our stories to a wider audience in a medium that was reluctant to give us a stage. Read the rest online at www.theskanner.com Week on the Web We Want Michael Vick Type Justice for Trayvon!... in Opinion For The Skanner News on your smart phone go to www. theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. Occupy North East, We Are Oregon, Rep. Lew Frederick Host Ainsworth Foreclo- sure Forum ... in NW News Steve Harvey: The ‘Think Like a Man’ Interview ... in Entertain- ment Film Review: ‘Marley ’... in Entertainment VIDEO: Fugitive Sur- renders Through Project Clean Slate ... in NW News Savings, Retirement, Family Budgets at Free Financial Empowerment Workshop ... in NW News www. The Skanner.com has the latest news from Portland and beyond, on your mobile or your desk- top, it’s your go-to place for the news you won’t see in mainstream publications. It’s your community. It’s The Skanner. April 25, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 5 L H F c f e to D A C b
